Sony Ericsson has issued threats to take legal action against multiple blogs over the leak of the release of the forthcoming P1000 mobile phone.

Weblog Empire, the publisher of the Blog Herald, was also subject to a legal demand that asked that reference to the phone be removed from The Gadget Blog. Strangley the email demanded a removal of the post some 12 hours prior to the email being sent, otherwise Sony Ericsson would reserve its right to sue us. The post at The Gadget Blog refered to a post at the Weblogs Inc., owned uber-gadget blog Engadget, which itself referenced a French speaking mobile phone forum. At the time of writing both Engadget and the source site both displayed details of the phone.

I’ve removedthe image in question from The Gadget Blog but will not be removing the references to the post at Engadget at this stage, as I believe that detailing a report on another site constitutes fair use reporting of third party information ,where as the image may be another matter.

Also at the time of writing 5 other sites referenced the post (according to Feedster) as well in various degrees, given which I’d presume they would have received something similar, as well as Engadget itself. More soon.

A while back I referenced a post on a business blog about a Nokia cell phone. I had various people from the mobile world crawling all over my blog. But though there were questions asked, they didn’t sue or ask it to be taken down. But it highlights the fact that you have to be careful if you challenge the big guns.

I think Sony Erickson are taking themselves far too seriously. What is this upsurge of suiing everyone for having freindly discussions? One would think that Sony Erickson should be more upset is people weren’t writing about their products?

Weblogs Inc. offered Kate Hopkins of Accidental Hedonist a gig with Slashfood. She asked about the contract, got either stonewalled or innocently forgotten… So she posted the contract in a comment on Food Blog S’cool. And now legal action might ensue. Jason Calacanis who usually is ranting about something or another on his blog is strangely silent. Metafilter and Phu Ly’s analysis ain’t pretty. Watch out bloggers, the pay sucks, you don’t own your words, can’t work for anyone else with Weblogs, Inc! Link.

Weblogs Inc. offered Kate Hopkins of Accidental Hedonist a gig with Slashfood. She asked about the contract, got either stonewalled or innocently forgotten… So she posted the contract in a comment on Food Blog S’cool. And now legal action might ensue. Jason Calacanis who usually is ranting about something or another on his blog is strangely silent. Metafilter and Phu Ly’s analysis ain’t pretty. Watch out bloggers, the pay sucks, you don’t own your words, can’t work for anyone else with Weblogs, Inc! Link.